Universe in Us
by Adventuresomely
Summary: Stargazing here with you after everything, the universe is so complex isn't it?


"It's huge, isn't it? The universe?"

Those were the words that escaped my lips as I lay beside Paula in the grass, staring up at the night sky with her. Thousands of small specks in space were scattered all about_, _glittering like diamonds. After everything we'd gone through to save the world, they were breathtakingly beautiful. It was views like this that made all the pain of our adventure worth it. Every scar, both physical and mental, didn't seem so bad when compared to this sort of beauty.

"It's really amazing…"

Thatwas Paula's somewhat dreamy and distant sounding response to my somewhat sudden question. A sigh escaped my lips as I slid my hand to meet hers, smiling from the comforting contact. It was really great being here with her, the one girl I'd fallen for nearly two years ago now. I decided, all the nightmares were worth it in the end.

Watching the stars above, my mind soon began to drift off elsewhere, slipping to curious wonderings about the universe's workings. A weird thought for someone who was only fifteen, right? When you really considered it, though, after everything my friends and I had gone through, it wasn't so strange anymore. It'd become a somewhat normal thing for me after I came back home and life went back to as normal as it possibly could have.

We weren't so alone in the universe like some people seemed to think and I couldn't help but wonder sometimes how it'd all begun in the first place.

There were hundreds of theories about how the universe started, weren't there? String theory, creationist theories… What if it was a bizarre mix of a lot of different things? I learned in one of my classes that energy can't be destroyed or created, so that leaves a pretty fundamental question about the universe; where did the energy come from originally, if energy can't be created? I thought about that a lot and eventually I started to get this idea in my head.

I heard somewhere a long time ago that the universe is shaped a lot like a neuron in the brain. Most of us have learned that on the atomic level of things, there's mostly empty space. So, I started to think… What if our universe is a neuron in something much larger? What if maybe we're in the mind of something bigger than we can fathom, and there are billions of other universes just out of reach to us because we're stuck in our own little neuron?

What if the creation of our universe and all the energy in it started in the same way two parents have a child, if our universe is one neuron among the billions inside something?

Maybe I'm looking too far into things and getting a little philosophical, but it's been the one thing that stuck with me and made the most sense. An egg has the potential to expand and produce life, but not without a trigger that starts the entire process. Maybe that's the process that started billions of years ago, right?

So, if we're in the mind of something so much larger than us, who's to say we don't have billions of universes within our own minds? Creatures and life residing within us that we never once realized existed… It's a bit of an interesting prospect, right? When someone dies, all of the universes within their mind also die, so it might be possible that the same will happen to us some day.

Thankfully, just like cells within our own body, we outlive them by a lot longer than they could possibly live for. A million years for us could be a few days for whatever being we reside in! That's why we haven't gone up in smoke yet, considering how long the universe has existed already.

I was finally shaken out of my thoughts when Paula shifted and sat up, taking her hand away from mine to brush her clothing free of dirt and grass. I sat up in turn and offered her a smile, which she returned brightly. Admittedly, her smile was just as beautiful as the stars themselves; but I wouldn't be philosophizing about that any time soon.

"Let's get home, it's getting late." I said to her, getting a nod in response.

Our parents were probably worried about us, since we usually came home before night fell. A night with Paula and a night pondering the workings of the universe made it worth it getting scolded.

"Thank you, Ness. The stars were really beautiful tonight!"

I beamed brightly at her, giving her a light kiss on the lips. As beautiful as the stars were and as amazing as the universe was, I don't think it'd ever be as amazing as Paula.

Maybe I'm just biased that way.


End file.
